Ianesta's page

You’ve also got the underground oceans and seas to consider. Maybe the impact caused a shift and led to more water coming up.

Originally Azlanti plus Keleshite equaled Taldan, and Taldan plus Ulfen made Chelaxians. I liked that little evolution ans it led to interesting questions about how widespread Ulfens were previously and how those groups interacted. Probably would have made more sense if it was Taldan and Kellid relations that made a new Chelaxian identity though.

I seem to remember a mentioning of Molthune having quite strict laws of war. Just adding some balance to the 'are they evil or neutral' discussion. I think Molthune could be characterised as amoral rather than immoral. Maybe it could be written as a rather nice place to live just without freedom, whereas Nirmathas can be seen as the opposite with total freedom but impoverished and dangerous.

Very minor question here, but I've seen it mentioned that during Absalom's Age of Expansion they funded various new settlements abroad. Is there any further info on this? Sounds interesting.

There is a gladiatorial arena in the city of Arena in the Shackles.

Taldor has a gladiatorial arena in Oppara.

Varisia has Zincher's Arena in Riddleport and the Bloodworks in Urglin.

The Song'os have a stick-fighting arena in Estad de Bomaye, but that doesn't sound like what you are looking for.

Casmaron has the Hanging Coliseum.

You could have a dope campaign travelling to all those arenas. Becoming the champion of champions.

I'm dying to hear about the Darklands in relation to each continent. We know Tian Xia has that Ysoki nation down below, along with those spooky clockworks, while I don't have any clue is beneath Arcadia.

Camazotz has a realm in the Darklands beneath Arcadia, The Land of the Eleven Deaths. Think that's the only canon info we have on Arcadian Darklands though

I suspect it would depend on their particular island (unless they mainland). I think the idea of the Shackles as being one coherent region is more something for us than an identity anyone in game would subscribe to.

Aren’t giants descended from gigas?

Good stuff.

A lot of that is a massive desert though. There are supposed to be a number of satrapies and I believe they have been hinted at being bigger and wealthier than Quadira. Between the Windswept Wastes and that big desert the land there doesn’t seem great.

I don’t see why the peninsula to the east of Vudra, and the bit to the east of the Great Grass Sea, can’t also be Kelesh. It supposed to be a massive empire aint it.

I always thought they could draw some influence for Thuvia from Game of Thrones. The Essos city states all seemed to have unique cultures and mostly existed in the desert. They also vied for prestige amongst one another and had their own little subplots going on.

I always figured the Dwarves as being an antisemitic stereotype. Traditionally I mean, not specifically for Paizo.

Can’t imagine Geb thinks much of Tar-Baphon. Geb has been ruling his little kingdom for millennia. He’s only had one significant threat (Nex) and his rule has been pretty much uncontested. TB’s rule led to everyone ganging up on him and launching a crusade and his eventual sealing up for thousands of years. He probably seems hasty and short sighted to Geb’s longview. I can’t see them having any significant beef though.

Pretty sure he’s a baernaloth.

I heard the King of Biting Ants is making a comeback.

keftiu wrote:

David knott 242 wrote:

The Caldaru from Arcadia have a colony in northern Garund, so it is not just the Avistani going out and colonizing the rest of the world.

Is it a colony if it was so long in the past that you don’t remember where you car from, and have had 0 contact with the homeland for thousands of years?

Yes. The colonial legacy is indelible.

Re: an earlier point, it occurs to me that there is an Arcadian population on Avistan - the strix of Devil's Perch and Ravounel Forest. Though they were probably planted by long-gone (from Avistan) masters and are today an oppressed people under the Chelish Taldans.

And there are fairly substantial Tien communities in the Linnorm Kingdoms down into Varisia, as well as Mendev. Brinewall was originally a colony of Minkaian exiles, though it failed and is today an outpost of New Thassilon.

Where are Tiens in Mendev mentioned?

Yeah, I'm not really a fan of the concept of Amanandar either. Between that and Sargava there seemed to be a bit of a double standard in 1e, in that Avistani people got to have colonies or conquered territories in Garund and Tian Xia but not the other way around (unless you count the long-gone Jistka Imperium).

Vudra and Kelesh have colonies in Garund.

She’s also childbirth as well.

I think Kaladay is round there.

Are the lovecraftian things implied to be outer gods and other dark tapestry type stuff, qlippoth, whatever hit zon kuthon upside the head, or something else?

I'm pretty sure I saw one of the developer's mention that the cosmic horror that broke Dou-Bral was unrelated to the qlippoth or the Outer Gods, but something they just hadn't gotten around to explaining. Would fit in with the whole idea of there being an 'outside' to the multiverse full of nasties.

I don't see much mention of Wesley Snipes? He still involved?

Tian-Min are pretty obviously Japanese though. They could have done with muddying the waters there and making Minkai a bit more of its own place rather than just fantasy Japan.

Have we got an Arcadia gazetteer?

They are explicity said to be very dark skinned, so Mwangi I assume. Garund wasn't always home to the Garundi, they migrated from down south at some point so maybe the Shory are some kind of proto group. From the sound of things I imagine there weren't too many actual Shory and they existed more as a ruling class with Mwangi, possibly some Garundi, as the majority. I'm guessing here though.

Ianesta wrote:

The Worldwound didn't occur until a little after Aroden's death and the reasons behind it have already been explained.

Where is it explained?

One of the wikis has it as Aroden's death causing a change in the alignment of the planes, making the planar boundary thinner there, allowing it to be created.

After 6 years of labor, Areelu, having recruited the aid of two other powerful arcane spellcasters and fellow prisoners under false pretenses of escaping, finally managed to open the destructive rift that would become the Worldwound. On the other side, Deskari used his scythe Riftcarver to widen the hole, beginning a chain reaction of devastation that saw the destruction of central Sarkoris and the rise of the Worldwound. Many scholars have theorized about the significance of this event’s timing, as the Worldwound opened only weeks after the death of Deskari’s old enemy Aroden, yet to date no evidence that this convergence of events was anything more than coincidence has surfaced.

From the final adventure in the Wrath of the Righteous adventure path.

The Worldwound didn't occur until a little after Aroden's death and the reasons behind it have already been explained.

I'm pretty sure Aroden was alive during the fall of Thassilon. There's a bit in the Azlanti AP about him marshalling ships and survivors in Azlant shortly after Earthfall.

Hallo. How did the centaurs and harpies and minotaurs end up on the Isle of Kortos? Did Aroden drop them off with the humans or did they find their own way over on boats and things after he rose it from the sea

Merry Christmas! Just a quickie, how did Katapesh end up with a Keleshite majority population? I'm assuming most of them came as religious refugees from Osirion, but I'm guessing there must have been other waves of migration due to how many of them there are.

Is there going to be a Blood Space campaign setting released anytime soon?

It's possible. Am I? An Aeon connection would go a long way to explaining the Azlanti Star Empire's degree of power in the setting. Ioun stones and Aeon stones: are they similar things? (Yr Pathfinder lore could easily be stronger than mine, I dunno.) Is there another plausible reason for everything Azlanti to consist of Aeon-this-and-that aside from some connection to actual Aeons?

Ioun stones were used to enhance magical abilities in a magic-heavy setting, aeon stones are used to enhance tech in a tech-heavy setting. There's obviously a continuity there. From what I recall, what the ioun stones actually were was left a bit ambiguous, and although the Azlanti used them it wasn't 100% confirmed that they actually created them. So who knows, maybe Paizo will run wild with the aeon stones and create a backstory for them, but there's definitely a link between the two.

A potential x-factor is that the Azlanti seem to have some kind of relationship with Outside forces, to judge by the "Aeon" styling that runs through their self-concept (Aeon Throne, Aeon Troopers and so on). If the Aeons being referenced here are bound Aeons with anything like the kind of powers available to Aeons in Pathfinder, the Azlanti have access to exceedingly abstruse knowledge about the multiverse and are themselves a millennia-old spacefaring society.

I think you're reading too much into this. Ioun stones were a thing in old Azlant too.

Did Taldor colonise any of the River Kingdoms back during their period of imperial expansion or did they ignore/vassalise it en route to Brevoy?

The Devourer is more similar to the old Azlanti deity Scal than Rovagug imo. FYI, there's a really good article on the Azlanti gods of old in the 'Flooded Cathedral' adventure. With the Azlanti making a return in Starfinder you gotta assume at least a few of those deities will still be kicking around.

The Worldwound opened later and was nothing to do with Aroden's death, the witch Areelu Vorlesh established contact with Deskari whilst she was locked up for being all witchy and evil, and it all went downhill from there. The storms seem kind of random and there's been no real attempt to explain them, so I'd assume they'd have formed the moment Aroden died. I s'pose something else might have formed them though and Paizo just haven't gotten around to talking about it yet though, who knows.

Ianesta wrote:

Who built the Arch of Aroden?

Taldans, I believe, as part of their initial mass colonization of Avistan.

Did the Taldan Empire have any land on the other side in Garund then?

Who built the Arch of Aroden?

When Pathfinder was going on there were also concurrent (and past) civilisations of high technology, like the Androffans. Post-Triune there may be a lot of high-tech cultures out there, but there are presumably as many with medieval-era tech like the old Golarion. The Divinity crashed probably 10k years before Starfinder meaning there has been 10k + years of laser guns and stuff going on, the new outsiders in Starfinder are cool, but they've probably been around for a while.

How large was the Whispering Tyrant's empire at its greatest extent? I'm guessing it stretched south to Nirmathas and west across the Storval Plateau?

One of the routes of the Path of Aganhei goes via Icestair in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, is there an established, safe route from there onwards into the civilised world? I mean their neighbours are the Worldwound, Irrisen and Belkzen, I imagine a fair few Tian traders get eaten before making it south.

Any idea on a release date yet?

Ok simple question, top 5 cities for a city-break, go.

I'm going with:

1. Quantium
2. Niswan
3. Iadara (if I can just get that damn visa)
4. Haseong
5. Whatever the capital of the Kelesh empire turns out to be. If Qadira is seen as the Kelesh backwater I'm sure it's a beautiful city.

Anyone else made Geb and Nex ex-lovers? Explains the depth of Geb's hatred for Nex and the length of the conflict, as well as Geb coming back as a ghost. Kind of a Dumbledor/Grindelwald feel, I s'pose.

Ianesta wrote:

What was the Korvosa - Kaer Maga conflict like? I'm assuming they didn't put together anything like a coherent defence? Also what's up with Sirathu? I read it used to be a Kaer Maga holding, did one faction in particular hold it?

Thanks mate.

Haven't really done much thought on that at all. Kaer Maga is a weird sort of "intruder" in what I envisioned for Varisia. It's a GREAT addition to the region, but it was never intended to be there. It was placed by James Sutter, and he's been more or less in charge of it and its development ever since. As such, I've not really put much thought into how Kaer Maga interacts with nearby settings, and in my head have always thought of it as an inward-focused settlement that's more interested in providing safe harbor for its ecclectic citizens rather than influencing the surrounding region.

Whilst we're on Varisia, Inner Sea Races mentions Shoanti as far afield as Numeria and the Worldwound. Are these remnants of likely extinct quahs, or are there other, smaller quahs that have spread out into traditional Kellid territories in the north? Thanks for the answers.

What was the Korvosa - Kaer Maga conflict like? I'm assuming they didn't put together anything like a coherent defence? Also what's up with Sirathu? I read it used to be a Kaer Maga holding, did one faction in particular hold it?

Thanks mate.

What were the logistics involved in Taldor's Sixth Army of Exploration? Did they bribe Nex's Arclords for access to the Ndele gap, or were Taldor so powerful at this point that they could just ignore them and marched straight on through on their ownsome?

Strange Aeons gonna be all in Ustalav or move around a little?

Barbatos is a Baernaloth.

I'm a little bit confused about some of Avistan's ethnic groups. The Shoanti are, according to Humans of Golarion, present all the way up from Varisia to Land of the Linnorm Kings and along to Numeria, yet there's very little else on that group outside Varisia and a little bit of Belkzen. Brevoy on the other hand has Varisian listed as a major language, yet I've seen little to suggest they're a major ethnic group there.

I have a big interest in ethnic politics in real life so I'm pretty curious about the make-up of Avistan's various regions and their interactions, the migration map in Humans of Golarion was a nice touch I'm just having trouble making sense of a few little bits.